By SUSAN JONES

Already anticipating another large incoming first-year class this fall, Pitt has decided to lease the Wellington Apartments on Melwood Avenue for at least the next five years.

The Board of Trustees Property and Facilities Committee voted on Feb. 3 to approve the lease, which will add 81 apartment-style units with 148 beds to Pitt’s growing housing portfolio. The Wellington will be an option for upper-class students during the room selection process.

Dwayne Pinkney, executive senior vice chancellor for administration and finance, said the building at 245 Melwood Ave., in North Oakland, just went through a two-year renovation. It is within three-quarters of a mile from the Cathedral of Learning and within half a mile of other Pitt housing. It also is near a Pitt shuttle route.

Pinkney said Pitt is expecting 5,200 new, first-year students this fall, which is significantly less that the record-setting 5,870 who started in fall 2025, but still more than the 4,589 from the previous year.

A University spokesman said expectations regarding the first-year class of 2026-27 were developed in close collaboration with the offices of the provost and admissions. The class is expected to be Pitt’s second largest on record. The University is on track to meet the Plan for Pitt 2028 goal to increase undergraduate enrollment to 22,000 on the Pittsburgh campus by 2028.

The details of the lease include an initial five-year term with total base rent over that period of $7.6 million, with an additional five-year renewal term with total base rent of $8.6 million. Whether the lease is renewed will depend on occupancy rates, student satisfaction and other factors, Pinkney said.

The cost and amenities for students will be comparable to similar-style housing elsewhere on campus. The building is owned by Sterling Land Co., which has a few other apartment buildings in North Oakland.

In July 2025, Pitt announced it was leasing three new spaces to house the University’s largest-ever incoming class. Those locations included:

The Hampton Inn, 3315 Hamlet St. near the Boulevard of the Allies, with 250 beds.

Pennsylvania Apartments, 300 N. Dithridge St., which housed up to 135 first-year students in one-, two- and three-bedroom units.

Webster Apartments, 101 N. Dithridge St., which was used for upperclassmen.

A Pitt spokesman said the University signed multi-year leases for the Hampton Inn and Pennsylvania Apartments to accommodate student demand. The University will not be renewing the current lease with Webster Apartments for the 2026-27 academic year. 

Since 2020, the University has leased extra housing space for a variety of reasons.

In fall 2020, at the height of the pandemic, Pitt took over three Oakland hotels at a cost of $22 million — two Residence Inns on Forbes Avenue and Bigelow Boulevard and the Wyndham Pittsburgh University Center on Lytton Avenue — in an effort to de-densify residence halls that have communal bathrooms.

In fall 2021, the Residence Inn University Medical Center on Bigelow Boulevard was leased again, because of a surge in enrollment caused largely by students who chose not to enter college in 2020 when many services were shut down. Nearly 5,000 new students entered Pitt in fall 2021, well over the 4,315 goal.

Pitt later bought this hotel for $32 million and converted it into housing for upper-class, graduate and medical students.

In fall 2022, around 130 first-year students were housed in two residence halls at nearby Carlow University.

In 2024, the University renewed its lease — first signed in 2019 — of 230 beds at Bridge at Forbes for student housing — with the option to add up to 51 beds annually based on demand — and 50 parking spaces. The lease is for four years, starting in August 2024, at an approximate total cost of $17.9 million.

Pitt is now working on plans to build a new 400-bed residence hall in the Ruskin parking lot surrounding the Music Building at Fifth and Ruskin avenues. The plan must be approved by the full Board of Trustees, which is expected to take it up at its May meeting.

Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.

 

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